Snow in Denmark
by Misura
Summary: Snow falls thicker in Denmark, but the hot chocolate tastes twice as good because of that. [Alice, Kyo and Frey]


Snow in Denmark

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Warnings/notes: Kyo/Alice with Frey tied in there, too, somewhere, shortie, post-manga.

Disclaimer: I don't own Alice 19th.

written at 19th december 2005, by Misura

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The snow falls thicker in Denmark, like a white curtain that hides the world outside. When Kyo looks out of the window, he can't see that he's in the middle of a big, busy city like Copenhagen, or even that he's on the fifth floor. All he can see is the snow.

He remembers what it felt like to walk through it, with the cold slowly seeping through their boots and clothes, in spite of both him and Alice being wrapped in layer upon layer of things that were supposed to keep them warm. It was a good thing he'd learned the directions Frey had given them in his letter by heart, or else they'd probably have still been wandering around, unable to check for any streetnames.

Copenhagen's citizens seem to be too smart to venture outside in this kind of weather, and Kyo can't say he blames them one bit, although it does make him wonder a bit if that means there are many people who, like him and Alice, won't be spending Christmas with their family -although he and Alice are doing so by choice, not because they're being kept away by the snow.

Frey's apartment felt like an oven when they first stepped inside, apologizing for the melting snow that dripped off their clothes onto Frey's specklessly clean floor. (Kyo wonders if, at some point during this visit, he'll have the courage to ask Frey if he does his own cleaning, because, somehow, he can't really picture Frey as a cleaning-maniac, or any fan of household-chores.)

Currently, nestled in a comfortable chair, his jacket hanging over a stool that's standing so close to the hearth that Kyo's afraid it'll catch flame if he looks at it the wrong way, the temperature seems perfect.

Alice appears to have suffered more from the cold than he did -considering she's sitting directly in front of the hearth, shivering and swatting at Frey who keeps telling her she's never going to get warm again if she insists on staying dressed in wet clothes. Kyo would like to help either of them, but while he agrees with Alice that Frey's just a little bit -or a whole lot- too eager to get her to strip, he also knows that Frey does have a point, and probably a lot more experience with getting warm again after having walked through a snowstorm.

Thus, Kyo stays where he is, watching the show, unable to keep a smile off his face. He's probably lucky that neither Frey nor Alice notices that last, since they'd probably interpret in some way that would oblige him to choose sides.

Frey eventually leaves to vanish into his small kitchen. Alice stares at her suitcase for a while, and Kyo wonders why he hasn't thought of there being plenty of dry clothes in there before. However, Alice stays put, apparently considering any kind of compromise at this point the same as admitting defeat and granting victory to Frey.

Kyo sighs before he grins, and takes another look around the apartment. Frey has told them it's not nearly as large as his quarters at the Home Sanctuary, and that he mostly keeps it because it's easier to have a place to sleep and eat near the airport. Kyo has to conclude that apartments are either a lot cheaper and bigger in Denmark than in Japan, or that Frey has been too modest.

If Kyo were able to find a room half this big in the middle of Tokyo, at walking distance from the campus, he'd consider himself extremely lucky. (Although he supposes that it's possible that the Guides have been using this apartment for years and years, getting it at a time when this was still a modestly-sized set of rooms for one person to live in.)

The smell of hot chocolate mixes with that of pine (from the tree that's standing in a corner, decked out with silver-coloured balls) and cinnamon, and Kyo turns his attention back to Alice just in time to witness her and Frey signing the peace-treaty. (Actually, Kyo suspects, Frey has simply bribed Alice to stop being mad at him with a mug of hot chocolate.)

Frey sends him a look that implies Kyo's lack of support for either side in the earlier argument has not passed completely unnoticed, and might be grounds for refusing him a hot drink now. Kyo shrugs, pretending he couldn't care less, and that Frey certainly wouldn't have managed to bribe -him- if he'd been in Alice's position.

Predictably, Frey responds by getting Alice to declare that Frey is an absolute master at making hot chocolate, and that she's never tasted anything so delicious. Kyo wonders how he can imply that, really, Frey's best chance at convincing Kyo of that would be by letting him taste this supposedly perfect ot chocolate himself.

If he were to put it in those terms, Kyo is rather sure that Frey would reply that Kyo's only trying to get Frey to give him a mug of hot chocolate -which would be true, and therefore something Kyo'd have trouble denying.

Alice, with a giggle in her voice that Kyo finds more than a little suspicious, asks Kyo if he agrees with her answer to Frey's inquiry, which neatly puts Frey in a position where he can either hand Kyo the second mug he's still holding in his left hand, or try and explain to Alice that he hasn't yet offered any hot chocolate to Kyo because Kyo has refused to disagree with Alice about how it's not a great idea to get out of your wet clothes.

Kyo manages not to look too pleased as Frey casually wanders over to his place near the window, acting like it's merely slipped his mind that he came out of the kitchen holding three mugs for a reason, and that that reason wasn't that he wanted two mugs for himself.

To Kyo's pleasant surprise, the hot chocolate actually does taste better than any he's tasted before, including the one he makes himself, using some old and secret recipe his aunt claims to have been in his family for ages. He considers asking Frey what's in it, then decides Frey is altogether too likely to become absolutely unsufferably smug if Kyo does so. Which doesn't mean he can't get Alice to ask for the doubtlessly ultra-secret and special ingredients, of course.

Frey isn't any better at saying 'no' to Alice than Kyo himself is, after all, even if Kyo knows that if he were to seriously ask Frey for anything, Frey probably wouldn't refuse him either (in part because, well, if the situation was reversed, Kyo knows what he'd do, and it isn't saying 'no', and he and Frey are strangely alike in things like this, and in things that concern Alice).

Kyo thinks he might end up thinking himself into a knot if he goes on this way, but fortunately, Alice asks Frey something about dinner, and Frey answers her by claiming something that Kyo knows to be incorrect.

The discussion ends abruptly when black smoke starts to drift into the room, coming out of the kitchen and prompting Frey to run in there, coming out again showing the black lumps that were to have been their dinner. Kyo settles for leaving their earlier argument undecided, and for making sure to remind Frey of this nearly-burning-down-the-kitchen the next time Frey wants to pretend he's better at cooking than Kyo. Alice looks a bit crestfallen at the whole thing, and Kyo's stomach reminds him that, yes, dinner, regardless of its cook being a bit big-headed, would have been nice.

Frey solves the problem by calling for a pizza, which arrives within fifteen minutes, proving that you really need supernatural powers to deliver pizzas, just like in the cartoons.

After dinner, Frey insist on them watching some theater-show on television. It's in Danish, which neither Kyo nor Alice understands, but Frey translates as much as he can, blatantly ignoring Kyo's observation that some characters talk much shorter than Frey's translation of their lines suggest.

Later that night, when Kyo lies on the couch -because Alice got the bed, and Frey dragged a sleeping bag out of a closet that he claimed to be much more comfortable than the couch- he imagines he can still hear the snow falling, softly landing onto the roof.

(The next morning, Frey tells him he must have heard Santa Claus' reindeer. Kyo thinks that's nonsense, but Alice laughs and is obviously taken with the idea, so Kyo doesn't voice his opinion too loudly.)

OWARI


End file.
